What to Cook Right Now

Good morning. It was on this day in 1411 that King Charles IV granted the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon the sole right to ripen Roquefort cheese, one of the first protected designations of origin in the history of fancy foods. That was six centuries ago, and you might celebrate the longevity of the law with the chef Bobby Flay’s recipe for pan-roasted chicken with Roquefort (above), a dish that turns up sometimes at his downtown restaurant Gato, alongside a heap of lemon potatoes.

Really you might. It’s a good feed. But if that seems like too much work, you’d rather just dump and stir, Martha Rose Shulman’s recipe for summer minestrone is easy, serial cooking, just the thing to make as you listen to “All Things Considered” give way to Kai Ryssdal as the sun falls into the sea (or New Jersey, depending on where you live).

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Now, about 1,700 miles from deep-fried oysters and eggs in aspic, did you see this fantastic Wall Street Journal yarn about Thomas J. Mace-Archer-Mills, one of the commentators who was all over television before Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle, explaining the monarchy to the world? Very posh accent, but it turns out he’s actually Tommy Muscatello, from Bolton Landing, N.Y.!